The second daughter and third child of Grand Duke Ferdinando I and his wife, Christina of Lorraine, Caterina, named after the eponymous Queen of France (who was also her great-grandmother) was born in Florence on 2 May 1593.

Caterina was considered as a potential spouse to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, heir to the three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, but his Anglican religion presented an insurmountable barrier.

[1] Eventually, she married in 1617 Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat;[2] the marriage, however, was childless.

Her nephew, Grand Duke Ferdinando II, created her Governess of Siena in 1627, where she died of smallpox two years later.

[4] Historian Colonel G.F. Young asserts that she bore a striking resemblance to her brother Cosimo II and sister Claudia.